(no subject)

[rushthatspeaks]

The Asian market in Narberth makes really good okonomiyaki, and is in fact the only place I have met in the US that sells genuine Japanese okonomiyaki, just like you buy in Osaka. For this alone, I would recommend the Asian market highly, but it also sells really good soy sauce and mirin and fulfills all possible Japanese junk food needs-- daifuku, mochi, every possible kind of Pocky and a new scary kind which is drizzled with frosting in squiggles and called Decorated Pocky. And they do a good curry, too. I need to keep going back for the okonomiyaki. (For those of you who may not know, okonomiyaki involves eggs and shredded cabbage and wheat flour and what I am reliably informed is candied beetroot and some other substances made into batter, poured onto a griddle, topped with a layer of cheese or pork or chicken or seafood or all of the above or anything else in creation up to and including pickles, fried to a golden brown pancake consistency, slathered with a dark brown, slightly sweet dipping sauce and then with, of all things, mayonnaise, and then sprinkled with huge quantities of parsley and shredded chipped bonito fish flakes. At your finer restaurants, the mayo will be Miracle Whip, which is said to have the perfect consistency for some reason or other. The finished creation, despite how it may sound, tastes wonderful in a way that resembles no flavor actually associated with any of the ingredients or comparisons I have just mentioned. It tastes nothing like an omelet, nothing like a pancake, and nothing like anything ever made from cabbage. You just have to go to Osaka and try one (the Osaka-yaki is the most famous because they cook it in a style involving having two layers of batter surrounding the other ingredients, whereas people who aren't from Osaka only have a bottom layer). For some reason okonomiyaki has not managed to make it to Japanese restaurants in this country, despite being easy to cook and containing locally locatable ingredients. Now they sell them in Narberth, and yes, the chef is from Osaka, and yes, it's Miracle Whip.) foleyartist1 took me to the Asian market as part of celebrating my having successfully turned in the thesis. She is much, much thanked, especially as the other half of the celebration involved tequila. Lots of tequila. So much tequila that we watched the Fake OAVs and they *made sense*. And I drank a lot of water and so didn't actually get hung over, even though I feel vaguely day-after-the-night-beforeish in a my, that was a lot of tequila and I *nearly* have a hangover but don't really sort of way. So yay. And thanks to her again; we should do that again sometime, possibly with not quite that much alcohol, but close.